â€œI donâ€™t think we can sit back and wait for someone else to take the lead, just so we donâ€™t have to expend energy or money. Weâ€™ve got to utilize the recourse it takes to advance our causes and hold up our part of the dealâ€ â€“ Donald Fisher

Donald Fisher has two life changing events to thank for his legacy. The native Californian readily admits that the first â€œchanged my life completely,â€ and the second prompted him to start a business enterprise that would elevate him and his wife into the list of the 400 wealthiest people in the United States. Fisher, now 82 years old, was far from a model student and became quite a controversial figure during his college education at Berkeley. Indeed, he was caught cheating but was not expelled, and he is quick to admit that he reflects to this day on these events. He is now so engrossed in educational causes that he is a major contributor to many different funds and serves on the California State Board of Education. He regularly donates to colleges and universities, charter schools and museums and is a well recognized figure in educational circles within his native San Francisco. Donald Fisher’s early years, after graduating from college, were involved in his father’s real estate business, but in the late ’sixties, a simple shopping experience was to provide the second life-changing experience, when he and his wife encountered trouble trying to exchange a pair of blue jeans he had bought. The experience taught him how disorganized the industry was and within the course of that very same year, the first â€œGapâ€ store was opened in San Francisco. The Fishers, including wife Doris, put all their efforts behind the new store, named after the â€œgeneration gapâ€ and aimed squarely at young people and college students. The promotional method and the casual styles stocked became a hit with the youth of that day and expansion quickly followed.